The Local Government Officials' Guide to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act is a 36-page printed booklet with more than 100 questions and answers about FOIA. We have purchased a limited supply and can provide you with one free copy for personal use.

Existing records prepared by or in the possession of a public body or its officers or employees in the ordinary transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be open and are withheld only if a specific exemption applies. You will be notified if any requested records are being withheld and the reason for the withholding of any records, including the appropriate authority (law or code section) which permits the City to withhold such records. Although the City strives to help you as much as possible, FOIA does not require that the City create records that do not already exist or answer general questions.

The County asks that the name and address of the requester be provided so that it can be determined to whom to send the information, but also so that the County can determine whether the person requesting the information is entitled to request records under the law. Your request must also be reasonably specific so that the records you are seeking can be identified and located.

Within 5 days after receiving your request (not including weekends or County holidays). If it is not practically possible to respond to your request within 5 working days, you will be promptly notified and the County will have an additional 7 working days.

You may request records in any format used by the County, such as paper, email or electronic means. The County can provide the records requested to you by mail or email, or you can arrange to personally retrieve copies of the records.

The County may charge for any requested records. The County is permitted to charge only for the actual costs of responding to your request. You may request that the County tells you in advance what the anticipated costs will be for supplying the records. If the estimated costs exceed $200, you may be required to pay before processing your request. Additionally, if you owe the County money from a previous request that has remained unpaid for more than 30 days, the County will require you to pay the past-due bill before processing any subsequent records requests.

A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying or searching for the requested records. No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining public records or transacting the general business of the public body. Any duplicating fee charged by a public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication. All charges for the supplying of requested records shall be estimated in advance at the request of the citizen as set forth in subsection F of § 2.2-3704 of the Code of Virginia.

Staff time, $22 per hour

CD-ROM/DVD, $1 per disc

Copies, $0.15 per page

Postage, varies

Other charges besides those listed may be applicable, including storage retrieval, professional printing, microfilm, printing, etc.

Records requests can be denied based upon the law which exempts the disclosure of records to the public. Examples of some records which would be withheld by a public body: records subject to attorney/client privilege; vendor proprietary information; personnel records; and records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract. Criminal history records and offense/incident reports and supplemental reports are withheld to the extent permitted under the law.

The Local Government Officials' Guide to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act is a 36-page printed booklet with more than 100 questions and answers about FOIA. We have purchased a limited supply and can provide you with one free copy for personal use.

James City County’s elected constitutional officers: Commonwealth’s Attorney, Treasurer, Commissioner of the Revenue, Registrar and Sherriff and Circuit Court are the legal custodians of their own respective records, and have separate disclosure exemptions applicable to some of their records. If we receive a request for records that are held by one of those officials, we will refer the requester to that official.